idle

comparative more idle · superlative most idle

1. obsoleteEmpty, vacant.

   Synonyms: bare, leer, void

2. Not being used appropriately; not occupied; (of time) with no, no important, or not much activity.

   idle hours

   2 more examples

   My computer hibernates after it has been idle for 30 minutes.

   The majority of accounts require no minimum balance and charge no monthly service fee. Where monthly fees and balance requirements exist, they're low. You earn no interest on the idle money in the account.

   2009, Jane Bryant Quinn, Making the Most of Your Money Now

   Synonyms: dormant, quiescent, suspended, abeyant, at rest, cessant, dormant, dull

3. Not engaged in any occupation or employment; unemployed; inactive; doing nothing in particular.

   idle workmen

   1 more example

   Molly the dairymaid came a little way from the rickyard, and said she would pluck the pigeon that very night after work. She was always ready to do anything for us boys; and we could never quite make out why they scolded her so for an idle hussy indoors. It seemed so unjust. Looking back, I recollect she had very beautiful brown eyes.

   1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC

   Synonyms: unbusied, workless, anachronistic, antediluvial, antediluvian, antiquated, antique, prehistoric

4. Averse to work, labor or employment; lazy; slothful.

   an idle fellow

   1 more example

   “I don't mean all of your friends—only a small proportion—which, however, connects your circle with that deadly, idle, brainless bunch—the insolent chatterers at the opera, the gorged dowagers, the worn-out, passionless men, the enervated matrons of the summer capital,[…]!”

   1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter VI, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC

   Synonyms: indolent, inert, bone-idle, fainéant, indolent, inert, lackadaisical, lazy

5. Of no importance; useless; worthless; vain; trifling; thoughtless; silly.

   an idle story;  idle talk;  idle rumor;  idle threats;  idle pleasures

   Synonyms: petty, pointless, base, contemptible, floccinaucinihilipilificatious, foolish, for the birds, futile

6. obsoleteLight-headed; foolish.

   The youth is idle

   1628, John Ford, The Lover's Melancholy

   Synonyms: fatuous, unwise, asinine, balmy, barmy, bedaft, loony, daft

present singular third person idles · participle present idling · participle past idled · past idled

1. transitiveTo spend (time) in idleness; to waste; to consume.

   'If I know William, he'll be settled in some airy corridor, idling the hours until he can ride in comfort.'

   2017 September 1, Angela King, The Blood of Kings, Open Road Media, →ISBN

   3 more examples

   […] the ne'er-do-anything-at-home who idled his day in immaculate attire and who was banished to Canada on a "remittance," shares his pork and beans with the sourdough, who has scratched rocks and sifted black sand from his infancy.

   1912, Frederick Arthur Talbot, Making Good in Canada, page 81

   While idling the hours I trace verses / On the inside of wrappers embellishing cans Of Bordeaux mackerel, caught in Monterey.

   1920, Raine Bennett, After the Day: A Collection of Post-war Impressions, page 1

   he […] lay in his blind idling the hours until the rising tide would send the shorebirds in across the marsh. Not far off two sons of Southern Italy were lazily transferring a stack of cut salt hay to a one horse hay cart.

   1967, Urner Field Observer, page 49

2. intransitiveTo lose or spend time doing nothing, or without being employed in business.

   to idle in an IRC channel

   1 more example

   He had already heard of the young man's projected journey — evidently the Comte de Combourg had written many letters while his son idled at St. Malo […]

   1939, Joan Evans, Chateaubriand, page 32

3. intransitiveOf an engine: to run at a slow speed, or out of gear; to tick over.

   High levels of all pollutants were found during time idling in stations.

   2021 October 6, Paul Clifton, “Network News: RSSB research exposes poor air quality on diesel trains”, in RAIL, number 941, page 14

   1 more example

   When train heating is in operation the diesel engine is arranged to idle at 550 r.p.m. which is the minimum at which the generator will deliver its full rated output.

   1960 April 28, “Type "3" Diesel-Electric Locomotives for the Southern Region”, in Railway Magazine, page 246

4. transitiveTo cause (an engine) to idle (run at a slow speed, or out of gear).

   The driver idled his engine until the car finally stalled.

5. transitiveTo make (workers, students, etc) idle; to leave without work.

   [L]ayoffs idled 1,900 workers in Ohio and 1,000 in Indiana. At the same time, an Indiana assembly plant recalled 1,200 workers.

   1955, United States Bureau of Employment Security, Unemployment Insurance Claims, volumes 11-12, page 14

plural idles

1. The state of idling, of being idle.
2. engineeringThe lowest selectable thrust or power setting of an engine.

   a lumpy idle

   1 more example

   A slight valve tap was audible at idle but was not noticeable otherwise.

   Synonyms: full throttle, wide open

3. gamesAn idle animation.
4. gamesAn idle game.

   Synonyms: idle game, incremental game

plural Idles

1. countableuncountableA surname.
2. countableuncountableA suburb in the City of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England (OS grid ref SE1737).
3. countableuncountableA river, the River Idle in Nottinghamshire, England, which flows into the River Trent.

1. abbreviationinitialismPythoncomputingInitialism of Integrated DeveLopment Environment.
2. abbreviationinitialismPythoncomputingInitialism of Integrated Development and Learning Environment.
3. abbreviationacronymmedicineAcronym of indolent lesion of epithelial origin.

   Synonyms: IDE